1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to semiconductor device design management, and more specifically, to tracking intellectual property used in a semiconductor device.
2. Related Art
Semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards often perform several different functions to process data and interface with external components. To reduce risks and save development time and costs, many functions common to semiconductor devices can be implemented using modular off-the-shelf designs from a third party vendor. Such functions can include, for example, audio codecs, data converters, touch screen controllers, video signal processing, logic cells, infrastructure components, and standard interfaces for USB, PCIe, DDR, SATA, HDMI, Ethernet and MIPI. The modules are often protected under intellectual property laws such as patents and copyrights, and the semiconductor manufacturers agree to license the intellectual property (IP) in exchange for the right to make and sell products that embody the IP.
The design process often includes generating and testing a software model of the semiconductor device using Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. The EDA tools allow designers to prepare various views of components and interconnections between components that are included in the device such as a netlist or schematic view and a layout view. Suppliers of the soft IP that is being used in the device typically provide models of components describing the IP. The models are typically provided in Register Transfer Level (RTL) files or other suitable representation that can be used in the EDA tools and are referred to as “soft IP.” Once the simulated model of the design is tested, the contents of the soft IP files as well as files for other components in the design are converted to a gate-level description of the circuit(s). Placement and routing tools can be used on the gate-level descriptions to create a physical layout. The layout can be converted and stored in a format that is used by semiconductor foundries to manufacture the devices according to specifications. Examples of formats used by semiconductor foundries include the Graphic Data file System II (GDS II) format and the Open Artwork System Interchange Standard (OASIS) format.